http://www.scienceline.org The Shortest Distance Between You and Science Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:32:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 The Shortest Distance Between You and Science no http://www.scienceline.org/2009/09/16/konkel-podcast-veterinarian-human-patients/ http://www.scienceline.org/2009/09/16/konkel-podcast-veterinarian-human-patients/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:25:58 +0000 Lindsey Konkel http://scienceline.org/2009/09/16/konkel-podcast-veterinarian-human-patients/ http://www.scienceline.org/2009/09/16/konkel-podcast-veterinarian-human-patients/feed/ 0 <p>Doctor Patricia Collins is a veterinarian and co-owner of a small animal hospital in Valley Cottage, New York. As she tells us, in many respects, treating animal patients is not so different than treating human patients.<span id="more-1804"></span></p> Veterinary medicine isn't just about Fido and Fifi anymore. http://www.scienceline.org/2009/06/23/malaria-research-podcast-raising-mosquitos-nyu-parasitology-epidemic/ http://www.scienceline.org/2009/06/23/malaria-research-podcast-raising-mosquitos-nyu-parasitology-epidemic/#comments Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:35:53 +0000 Erik Ortlip http://scienceline.org/2009/06/23/malaria-research-podcast-raising-mosquitos-nyu-parasitology-epidemic/ http://www.scienceline.org/2009/06/23/malaria-research-podcast-raising-mosquitos-nyu-parasitology-epidemic/feed/ 0 <p>Note: Originally published at www.theendofthedial.com.</p> <p><strong>Related on <em>Scienceline</em>:</strong></p> <p>A microscopic arms race may lead to <a href="http://scienceline.org/2009/03/10/health-ortlip-malaria-microorganisms-fr9000098/">a new cost effective malaria treatment</a>.</p> <p>New life for decades old <a href="http://scienceline.org/2009/06/01/health-joelving-malaria-vaccine/">malaria vaccine</a>.</p> <p>Could <a href="http://scienceline.org/2009/05/05/bio-rettner-malaria-climate-change/">climate change cause an escalation</a> in the malaria epidemic?</p> Jean Robert Nonon raises mosquitoes at New York University, sending them across the globe for malaria research. http://www.scienceline.org/2009/05/13/podcast-israel-east-river-fishing-pollution/ http://www.scienceline.org/2009/05/13/podcast-israel-east-river-fishing-pollution/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 04:01:56 +0000 Brett Israel http://scienceline.org/2009/05/13/podcast-israel-east-river-fishing-pollution/ http://www.scienceline.org/2009/05/13/podcast-israel-east-river-fishing-pollution/feed/ 0 Is your catch safe to eat? http://www.scienceline.org/2008/08/22/phys-mahan-stretchyicecream/ http://www.scienceline.org/2008/08/22/phys-mahan-stretchyicecream/#comments Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:01:48 +0000 Rachel Mahan http://scienceline.org/2008/08/22/phys-mahan-stretchyicecream/ http://www.scienceline.org/2008/08/22/phys-mahan-stretchyicecream/feed/ 5 <p><em>** Editor’s Note: The staff of Scienceline is taking a short break to work on future stories. This article originally appeared July 18, 2008.**</em></p> <p>From the back of the chemistry lab comes the clanking of bowls, the beeping of a microwave and even the appreciative smacking of lips. In this back room, away from the usual laboratory paraphernalia, students from Kent Kirshenbaum’s lab and the food studies department at New York University are making ice cream.</p> <p>Milk and sugar are included, but because a chemistry lab is not your typical creamery, this is also not your typical ice cream. It is traditional Turkish ice cream, known as <em>Maras dondurma</em>. When prepared with the right ingredients and care, it becomes so elastic and pliable that Kirshenbaum says people have been photographed jumping rope with it. “It’s like pulling taffy,” he says.</p> <p>Kirshenbaum’s team is trying to understand what makes <a href="http://www.salon.com/wlust/feature/1998/11/17feature.html" target="_blank">this traditional dessert</a> so stretchy—whether it’s the unusual ingredients, the meticulous preparation or both. In addition to milk and sugar, it contains <em>salep</em>, which is ground orchid root, and often contains a flavoring called <em>mastic</em>, which is a dried resin harvested from trees on a tiny Greek island. The ice cream goes through a mostly human-powered process before it eventually becomes elastic.</p> <table style="width: 210px;" border="0" align="right"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="border: 1px none ; padding: 5px; color: #ffffff; background-color: #3399cc; text-align: center"><a onclick="window.open(this.href,'window','width=825,height=610,resizable,scrollbars,toolbar,menubar');return false;" href="http://scienceline.org/_s/files/2008/07/stretchyrecipe.gif"><img src="http://scienceline.org/_s/files/2008/07/stretchy_small.gif" alt="Tilapia Genetics" /></a><br /> <a onclick="window.open(this.href,'window','width=825,height=610,resizable,scrollbars,toolbar,menubar');return false;" href="http://scienceline.org/_s/files/2008/07/stretchyrecipe.gif">Click here</a> to see the recipe for stretchy ice cream.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>The researchers are finding that the stretchiness depends on a combination of all these things, says Arielle Johnson, an undergraduate chemistry major who has been working on the ice cream as part of an independent study project. While mixing up different batches, she has been observing the consistency—and tasting a little here and there, of course.</p> <p>“Getting chem credit for cooking is pretty awesome,” Johnson says. The group also includes Richard Silver, a graduate student in Kirshenbaum’s lab, and Anne E. McBride, a graduate student in the food studies department.</p> <p>Kirshenbaum’s students typically study polymers, which are long molecules with repeating units (think: beaded necklaces). But polymers are <a href="http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1720049_1720050_1721651,00.html" target="_blank">not limited to labs</a>. Polymers make cornstarch a good thickener and cause gelatin to gel. “A lot of what we do when we cook is to do biochemistry on polymers,” Kirshenbaum says.</p> <p>The two unusual Turkish ice cream ingredients, salep and mastic, probably contribute to the ice cream’s mysterious elasticity because they both contain polymers. The main polymers in salep are glucomannans, which are chains of sugar units, and in mastic there are poly-beta-myrcene polymers.</p> <p>Two [...] Science and tradition meet when chemists cook up stretchy Turkish ice cream. http://www.scienceline.org/2008/02/08/podcast-mahan-archaeology/ http://www.scienceline.org/2008/02/08/podcast-mahan-archaeology/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:00:25 +0000 Rachel Mahan http://scienceline.org/2008/02/08/podcast-mahan-archaeology/ http://www.scienceline.org/2008/02/08/podcast-mahan-archaeology/feed/ 8 <p><strong>Explore feminist archaeology.</strong> In this edition of the Sound of Science, Rita Wright talks about women in archaeology now and archaeology’s bias, until recently, toward studying men in ancient societies. She describes what it is like to work as a woman in areas like Pakistan and how her job influences her home decor.</p> In an audio profile, archaeologist Rita Wright uncovers the status of women in the field, thousands of years ago and today. http://www.scienceline.org/2007/12/12/analysis-new-twist-in-stem-cell-debate/ http://www.scienceline.org/2007/12/12/analysis-new-twist-in-stem-cell-debate/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:58:22 +0000 Christopher Intagliata http://scienceline.org/2007/12/12/analysis-new-twist-in-stem-cell-debate/ http://www.scienceline.org/2007/12/12/analysis-new-twist-in-stem-cell-debate/feed/ 0 The Sound of Science. Listen to one scientist's perspective on the new development of stem cells from human skin and a discussion about the ethical and political implications. http://www.scienceline.org/2007/11/05/ask-ashford-balancingbikes/ http://www.scienceline.org/2007/11/05/ask-ashford-balancingbikes/#comments Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:52:35 +0000 Molika Ashford http://scienceline.org/2007/11/05/ask-ashford-balancingbikes/ http://www.scienceline.org/2007/11/05/ask-ashford-balancingbikes/feed/ 2 <p>If you find yourself wondering how the large man riding past you in the tiny yellow shorts can stay up on something as skinny as a bicycle, be heartened by the fact that scientists wonder too. Though they have long known how fast the earth is traveling around the sun, and what deep ocean currents do, and how to get to the moon, the way that different forces combine to produce bike-stability is still a subject of investigation.</p> <p>Many have agreed that bikes are held up at least partly by two powerful gyroscopes – their <a href="http://static.howstuffworks.com/mpeg/gyro.mpg">wheels</a>. A gyroscope is, appropriately, a spinning wheel or a sphere that rotates so fast, it creates forces that make it hard to change its orientation. Scientists, fittingly, use gyroscopes to measure changes in orientation.</p> <p>As a bike wheel spins, it is rotating around an imaginary horizontal line that goes through its center, creating a force in the direction of its spin. If you try to change the horizontal axis by falling left or right, the spin translates that push into a turning motion. Lean right – turn right, lean left – turn left. Scientists call this behavior <a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/gyroscope2.htm">precession</a>.</p> <p>You can see precession in action with a rider-less bike. Take your two-wheels out to the park and give it a good forward shove. Then, run up alongside and give it a sideways shove. Unless you’re doing a full on rugby tackle, the bike should wobble, but then <a href="http://ruina.tam.cornell.edu/research/topics/bicycle_mechanics/bicycle_stability.mov">realign and keep on</a> going. Scientists believe that it’s the forward spinning motion of the wheels that helps to keep the bike balanced.</p> <p>On the other hand, it has also been <a href="http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/aed29/Bad_Mechanics.htm">shown</a> that the gyroscopic effect of a bicycle’s wheel is all but cancelled out by the weight of the rider’s body as well as the force pushing down on the front handlebars. One ambitious engineer, Dr. Hugh Hunt of the University of Cambridge, <a href="http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~hemh/gyrobike.htm">built a bike </a>with a second front wheel. Theoretically, if gyroscopes were all that had to do with balance, spinning the second wheel in the opposite direction of the first would cancel out the gyroscopic forces, and make the bike un-rideable. Yet no matter how fast the second wheel was spun, the bike performed exactly the same. This, he concluded, demonstrated that while gyroscopes are part of a bicycle’s movement, their effect on stability is small enough that it is <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/backpage.ns?id=mg19225812.400">overshadowed</a> by the force of the rider’s weight and movement.</p> <p>This leaves a bicyclist to depend on small corrections in her steering, body position, and speed to keep her from falling. You can see such corrections at work when watching a beginner zoom around. New cyclists tend to veer back and forth, correcting any leaning with big shifts in direction. Sneakily, experienced riders are doing this, too – just so precisely that you can’t really tell.</p> <p>This acute adjustment of balance also explains those hipsters in really tight pants doing ‘track stands,’ or staying still on a bike without putting a foot down, at city intersections. Inexperienced track-standers wobble back and forth, slowly inching into oncoming traffic; the well practiced, on the other hand, shift their weight so precisely, the bike stays put. This represents the kind of physical power over the bicycle that Hunt says overshadows the spinning of the front wheel.</p> <p>The caveat to the balance-shifting explanation is that it only represents [...] - asks Ariel from Vermont